Shafer: Back from break

Garrett Shafer, Student columnist

Posted:
01/10/2013 03:03:24 PM MST

Hey everyone, I'm back! It's been a few weeks since my last article. The last couple of weeks we've been on Christmas break, which includes lots of distractions and lazy days to just lay around and do nothing.

If you ask any coach, most all games or tournaments before Christmas break don't mean anything. I don't mean they're pointless to go to, but rather you can't base your season on what you did before break. More often than not you don't play any conference games till the New Year.

In all that time off it's hard to stay focused on sports and to stay in shape. But think of it like this: How badly do you want to be successful? What are you willing to give up winning? Whether it's basketball or wrestling, if you don't keep going to the gym and shooting or keep wrestling and watch what you eat then everything you did before Christmas WAS pointless.

As high school students we tend to take advantage of any time off we can get, and why not? A week or so of a break won't hurt you none, right? If you agreed with that then you're flat out wrong, because I guarantee you that your opponent went out and worked all the way through break. People say all the time that they want to be successful but aren't willing to put in the effort to BE successful, most when given the option of watching movies all day or going to the gym and working on their jump shot and doing some sprints -- or if you're a wrestler, going to the gym and either working out or just working with a friend on takedowns.

Some people say they want it, but they just kind of want it. They don't want it as much as they want to eat.

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Some people reading this don't want to be successful as badly as they want to sleep. There are a lot of people who say things -- say this say that -- but the world is running out of 'doers.' Every single day there are people out there working harder than you.

In my opinion you're not considered "successful" until I don't have to give you a dime to do it. Ray Lewis says, "If you want to be the best and stay there, sweat is necessary."

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